This invention relates to a clip-like sheet-metal nut and to an assembly device for conveying and setting the sheet-metal nut in place. These sheet-metal nuts typically have a thread leg having an embossed thread hole and a generally parallel clip leg integrally connected to the thread leg at one end with a U-shaped web to form a C-shape. They have been used for many years in the automobile industry, the domestic appliance industry and many other branches of industry to connect plate-shaped components to other components with screws. For this purpose, the clip-like nut is pushed onto the edge of a bearer plate provided with a hole until the threaded hole in the nut and the hole in the plate are aligned.
Since manually pushing on the clips or using a hammer is very laborious and also involves the risk of injury, efforts have been made for some time to create suitable assembly devices for setting the sheet-metal nuts in place. Typically, these assembly devices consist of a clip retaining head having a displacement channel for laterally feeding the sheet-metal nuts to the head, a retaining means for temporarily holding the sheet-metal nuts in position in the head and a displacement means, which can be actuated by a pressure medium, for ejecting the sheet-metal nut from the head and pressing it onto the edge of a bearer plate. In this regard, the sheet-metal nuts can be fed manually to the retaining head or by means of a magazine which contains a row of sheet-metal nuts that can be supplied automatically one after the other in orientated position to the retaining head. See for example, German Auslegeschrift 1,728,327 and British Patent Specification 1,352,776.
However, these assembly devices or guns are used in assembly lines only with reluctance, because the loading and constant changing of the magazines is a troublesome problem. Also, the sheet-metal nuts do not stack readily one above the other, because the thread leg with its embossed thread portion and its leading edge does not form a smooth plane. Moreover, the embossed thread portion of one sheet-metal nut can easily catch in the hole of the clip leg of the following sheet-metal nut and, when ejected laterally, can even interlock.